The Death of Franz Liszt.

The Death of Franz Liszt, introduced, annotated and edited at Alan Walker. Cornell University Pres (Sage House, 512 E State &, Ithaca, NY 14850) 2002 224 pp $2995

greatest in number coverups eventually fail, but seldom shut in up for 110 years. A truer tale of Franz Liszt's excessively last days than told up to now appeared in 1996 in the secondary to last chapter of Alan Walker's Franz Liszt: The Final Years. The source for Walker's account, a diary of Liszt's observer Lina Schmalhausen, is now available in an annotated edition titled The Death of Franz Liszt.

Schmalhausen was a pupil, caregiver and confidante of Liszt in his last years. Her diary cloaks July 22, 1886, to August 3 1886 the day of Liszt's funeral in Bayreuth. Its satisfys include the daily comings and goings around the dying Liszt and her actual personal comments on events and many of the race involved. We hear from Liszt forward topics such as his personal keepsakes, his close examiners human relations, May-December romances, Ludwig II of Bavaria and artistic and practical aspects of the Bayreuth Festival.

Many subsequently famous Liszt pupils were in Bayreuth during the days rehearseed in the diary: Arthur Friedheim, August Gollerich, Marie Ja%ll, Sophie Menter Alexander Siloti and Bernhard Stavenhagen. Schmalhausen's observations of them during the last days of their great teacher add, not always flatteringly, to our knowledge of the personal profile of these younger artists.

And, of course, the powerful figure of Cosima, Liszt's daughter and Wagner's widow of three years, is current throughout. She faced overseeing the performances and social affairs of the Bayreuth Festival while her mortally ill father lay complete by. Schmalhausen gives a daily account of this situation.

Is the diary reliable? Walker became familiar with its easy in minds in 1977. As his work forward his three-volume Liszt biography progressioned his research in other sources supported Schmalhausen's rendering of the facts. In his introduction Walker does caution the reader to view her interpretation of the facts in the light of her relations with Liszt, Cosima and several other Liszt pupils, relations which he at hands to the reader.

Must a reader be familiar with Walker's monumental Liszt biography to understand and have the advantage [i]or[/i] blessing of reading this diary? No. Walker's introduction and epilogue (a revealing anticipate at various parries arguing across where Liszt should be buried) clearly frame the diary's affairs His annotations on people and occurrences in the diary place everything in connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts with clarity and sovereign erudition.

The work attractively produced and formatted, quick in emergenciess eight black-and-white photos. Editorial errors and indexing omissions are at a minimum.

Reviewed by way of Richard Zimdars, Athens, Georgia.

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